Hunt was raised in Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee by a single mother. Hunt attended The Field School in Washington, D.C. before following her mother’s educational path and attending law school at Northeastern University. She then graduated in 1994 from New York’s Columbia University in film when she realized law was not an interest for her. Even though law was not a field she would be going into, it gave her a new perspective on the world. In an interview with Film Catcher on YouTube, Hunt stated that law school gave her the opportunity and experience of attending co-op jobs that allowed her to work for a federal judge and a criminal defence firm. Her husband would give her murder appeals from which she learned about dialogue and point of view from the transcripts which built onto her knowledge of film and how to write screenplays. Shortly after graduating from her film class, Hunt began to write and develop the story for her film Frozen River, by researching the Mohawk people.

Hunt directed and wrote the screenplay for Frozen River, a film starring Melissa Leo, Misty Upham, and Charlie McDermott in 2008. Frozen River was originally a short film and it first premiered in 2004 at the New York Film Festival. She then turned Frozen River into a feature-length film. It was nominated in 2009 at the 81st Academy Awards, and it was also nominated for the 24th Independent Spirit Awards. It won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.